Space Capsule Expected to Yield Some Useful Data Despite Crash

By WARREN E. LEARY

Published: September 10, 2004

Scientists are optimistic that they will retrieve useful information from the smashed capsule that fell to earth in the Utah desert after three years in space, officials said Thursday.

Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the crushed sample canister holding billions of solar particles collected 930,000 miles out in space was being assessed in the controlled environment of a laboratory at the Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. After peeking through a crack in the container, officials said some of the collector plates holding the solar samples appeared to be intact while others were pulverized on impact.

The $264 million Genesis mission, which had gone smoothly since its launching in 2001, ended in disappointment on Wednesday when two parachutes failed to open after the sample capsule returned on schedule from space. The 450-pound, disc-shaped capsule slammed into the sand and mud of the desert at 193 miles per hour, cracking open at the seams as it buried itself halfway into the ground.

''There was a lot of damage done,'' Dr. David Lindstrom, NASA's Genesis program scientist, said in a telephone news conference. ''We have a mangled mess of a spacecraft.''

Dr. Lindstrom said experts were taking their time examining the sample capsule to determine how badly dirt and other materials had contaminated it. Scientists want to move carefully to prevent further damage to the samples and to develop a plan for opening the capsule while causing the least harm.

''We are very hopeful of getting good science out of this,'' he said.

It will take several days to examine the sample capsule, which has been ripped open with a six-inch gap between the top and bottom sections, Dr. Lindstrom said. After the initial assessment, the capsule will be sent to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for detailed work, as was originally planned.

The re-entry vehicle that contained the science capsule was dug out of the ground and also taken to the Army base, where investigators will begin examining it. Dr. Lindstrom said he would not speculate on the cause of the re-entry system failure, but noted that the parachutes and the equipment that is supposed to make them work had been in deep space for three years. NASA has little experience with aging and other factors that could affect the system, since this was the first time the agency had attempted to retrieve a cargo from deep space, he said.

Robert Corwin, an engineer with Lockheed Martin Space Systems, which build the Genesis craft, said investigators would look for a possible malfunction in sensors or electronics that controlled deploying the parachutes, with particular attention to a battery that overheated.